Emmerdale's Charles Anderson (played by Kevin Mathurin) faces a huge dilemma next week when his son Ethan (Emile John) confesses the truth about the crash that has left Nicky Milligan (Lewis Cope) in a serious condition in hospital. Spoilers released by ITV show that the vicar has to make a difficult decision and actor Kevin exclusively told Express.co.uk and other media about his struggle with his choice.
His crisis of conscience arises as Nicky continues to fight for his life. Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) is keeping a vigil by her son's bedside. She confides in Moira Barton (Natalie J. Robb) about the seriousness of Nicky's condition, and the two bond despite previous family tensions.
Desperate for vengeance for her son, Ruby wants to know who was driving his car. As her husband Caleb (Will Ash) reconciles with his brother Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordely), he also vows to find the driver.
Meanwhile, Ethan is feeling guilty as his family praises him ahead of his new job, which he knows he would lose if he were to be arrested for causing the crash. Charles astutely notices his son's discomfort and is worried.
He later guides the lawyer into the church for a frank conversation. However, despite his experience in hearing shocking confessions, even he is blindsided when Ethan admits he was the driver of the car when Nicky had his accident.
He is even more stunned when Ethan reveals he intends to lie to the police and asks his father to give an alibi for his whereabouts the night of the accident.
This leads to a struggle for Charles who has to choose between faith and family. It later becomes obvious what choice he has made when Ethan is arrested for the accident and is devastated to realise that his own father reported him to the police.
His issues are compounded as his arrest is witnessed by Ruby who realises he must have been driving Nicky’s car. As she rages, Charles begins to regret his decision.
Explaining his struggle Kevin said: "I think there's always that battle between Charles the vicar and Charles the man and the father. He wants to do right by his son, obviously, but righteously to do the right thing is to own up, to face the consequences.
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"It's is awful for parents to not know the full details of why their child is in hospital whatever the condition is, and I think Charles, as the parishioner of the village, wants to do the right thing and support them as well as support Ethan."
"Sometimes doing the right thing doesn't give you the right results. Obviously, there's the risk of going to jail, and it's not the first time he's sent one of his family members to jail," Kevin laughed.
Asked if incidents like this latest one have perhaps made him question his faith, Kevin ponders: "I think faith is really important to Charles and yes, life is always testing him. But that's life in general life - it tests everyone.
"Luckily, he's got his faith to rely on where some people don't have that. But I think things do happen, where he thinks 'why me?'"
Emmerdale is on ITV weekdays at 7.30pm.
